A SALFORD teacher who was suspended on full pay after she shot at teenagers with an air pistol has now been jailed for six months.

Linda Walker, was Year 11 head and careers co-ordinator at Irwell Park High School - now renamed New Park High - when she was suspended last year as police launched an investigation into allegations she had opened fire on youths outside her Urmston home.

Walker was found guilty of affray at Manchester Crown Court after the jury heard she had fired up to six rounds from a gas-powered air pistol into the ground close to the feet of teenager she claimed was among a gang plaguing her family.

Following the sentencing of the 47-year-old, the case launched a national debate on whether the law is stacked against householders when their homes and family's are targeted by teenage louts.

While Almut Beaver-Warren, the current head teacher of New Park High, has refused to comment on the case, former head Nigel Haslem praised Walker. He said: "She was very professional and very thorough. She did a tremendous amount for young people.

"She worked all the hours that came and provided the students with many opportunities to succeed."

A spokesperson for Salford LEA said: "Linda Walker was suspended from her teaching post pending this police investigation and court action.

"Now legal proceedings are ended, any formal disciplinary action can also be concluded."

Speaking from the family's home in Holly House Drive, Urmston, Walker's partner John Cavanagh, 56, himself a lecturer in key skills and motor vehicles at Salford College's City Campus, said: "I have not met one person who does not sympathise with us over what has happened, the family is devastated.

"We always knew there was the possibility that she would be given a custodial sentence but it was something of a shock when I heard the sentence."

Walker's 17-year-old son has said that he believes that one of the reasons the family was targeted was his homosexuality.

The court heard transcripts of police interviews in which Walker had claimed she had received nuisance phone calls calling her 17-year-old son a 'poof' and that the wing mirror had been broken off the car of her other son.

She also said her shed had been broken into, her garden ornaments had been thrown over the wall and her fish had been stolen from her pond.

The court heard that the final provocation came in August last year when Walker saw a washing-up liquid container full of water had been emptied over her son's car.

She told the court that she picked up her partner's Walther CP88 gas-powered pellet pistol, which she kept in her underwear drawer, and an air rifle belonging to her son.

She said she was "fuming mad" when she rushed out of her house to confront an 18-year-old teenager who was among a group of youths standing 250 yards away.